Methodology for calculation of effects of greenhouse gases

Monday 8 October 2007

LEI wishes to develop a nationally and internationally recognised system - in a participatory manner - for determining a sustainability indicator in the field of greenhouse gases. The first phase of this has now been approved. All of this is a response by the Commodity Board for Horticulture to the CO2 labelling debate and progress in this area in the UK.

In recent years, the sustainability debate with regard to horticultural products has increasingly concentrated on climate change. On the one hand, this is fuelled by the international debate on the greenhouse effect and the proposals developed at global level (Kyoto) and at European level (50% reduction by 2050). The recent publicity surrounding global warming (including Al Gore’s film 'An Inconvenient Truth' and the IPPC report) has broadened people’s attention to include the entire production chain (production, trade and transport). Within the sector, this debate has gained momentum over the past year due to a new phenomenon originating in the UK. Towards the end of the 1990s, the debate on CO2 and transport became the vogue under the name 'food miles'. This trend gained so much strength that British consumer organisations recently began urging the public to buy products produced close to home where possible, rather than flown or shipped in over great distances.